Human remains discovered in a local family's yard in October 1981 have been positively identified as Native American. Not only that – they are believed to be 1,000 years old or more.

Det. Sgt. Michael Morey of the Michigan State Police said a homeowner found the buried bones during a construction project within the village limits. The bones appeared to be human, so he called the police.

MSP Det. Ken Voet and Trooper Robert Beaver, both now retired, recovered the remains and transported them to the MSP crime lab, which forwarded them to the Michigan State University Anthropology Department.

Morey said a report by Dr. Norman Sauer of MSU stated the bones were from at least three people, all adults. Sauer's report also said that, while it was impossible to accurately date the remains, he believed them to be "very old," at least pre-20th century, but that they appeared to be "prehistoric, possible 1,000 years old or more."

The Lyons bones, along with a set of bones found in Ithaca, Mich., and sent to MSU in 1971, were held in the anthropology department for a year, and then placed in the university's osteology teaching collection, where they have been ever since. Osteology is the scientific study of bones.

Morey said a federal law passed in 1990, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, requires certain procedures to be followed with Native American remains.

MSU "decided to release the remains back to authorities," Morey said. The federal act "dictates what we have to do now."

Morey said he has to research a list of Native American tribes geographically connected to the Lyons area that these remains could possibly belong to, and then put out a nationwide notice to these tribes.

"Then we wait to see if someone wants to claim the remains," he said. "They can take them back, or say to return them to the landowner."

Morey picked the bones up from MSU on Wednesday. The MSP has two years from the date he took possession of the remains to go through all the steps required by federal law. Morey has begun the process on the Lyons bones. He plans to return the Ithaca bones, which were determined to be not as old as the Lyons remains, to the MSP St. Louis Detachment of the Lakeview Post.

Morey said occasionally bones are found in Ionia County, but most often they are determined to be animal bones. Any bones are usually turned over to the crime lab, because they can resemble human bones and he "is not comfortable making that call," he said.

"If someone finds bones, they should call the police," Morey said. "It could be evidence of a crime – a homicide or whatever."

Only after the MSP was advised by the anthropology lab that the bones were prehistoric did detectives close the case.